My thoughts on the Phillies season.

2011 National League Divisional Series, Game #1: The Phils offense romp behind their ace, as they rout the Cards, 11-6.

After trailing early, the Phils’ offense roar for eleven runs in support of the team’s ace, Roy Halladay, as they rout the Cards, 11-6.

The Cards took a quick 3-0 lead as, with two men on, and with one man out, Lance Berkman hits the first pitch he saw into the right field seats for a three-run home run, his first home run of the series, knocking in Rafael Furcal, who had started the game off with a single, before stealing second base, and Albert Pujols, who had just walked on four pitches. The Phils got a run back in the fourth as, with two men on, and with two men out, Shane Victorino, after being given an extra life as third baseman David Freese committed a pop foul error, hits an RBI single, knocking in Chase Utley, who had earlier doubled, the Phils’ first hit of the game, after being put down 1-2-3 in the first three innings by Cards’ starter Kyle Lohse, cutting the Cards’ lead down to 3-1, while sending Ryan Howard, who had just been walked, up to second base. The Phils then took the lead in the sixth as, with two men on, and with one man out, Howard hits a three-run bomb to right, his first home run of the series, scoring Jimmy Rollins, who had earlier singled, then moved up to second base on Hunter Pence’s single, and Pence, who had just singled, giving the Phils a 4-3 lead. Two batters later, after Victorino had reached base with his second single of the ballgame, Raul Ibanez hits a two-run bomb of his own, his first home run of the series, knocking in Victorino, giving the Phils a 6-3 lead. The Phils then added to their lead in the seventh as, with the bases loaded, via singles by Roy Halladay, Rollins, his second of the game, sending Halladay up to second base, and Utley, his second hit of the ballgame, moving both Halladay and Rollins up a base, and with one man out, as Pence hits into a force out, 1-2, as Halladay is thrown out at the plate, while Rollins and Utley both moved up a base, Howard hits a sacrifice fly, which had sounded like it would leave the ballpark, scoring Rollins, giving the Phils a 7-3 lead. The Phils then made it an 8-3 lead as Victorino hits an RBI single, his third hit of the ballgame, scoring Utley, while sending Pence up to second base. The Phils then took a 9-3 lead as Ibanez hits an RBI single, his second hit of the game, knocking in Pence, while sending Victorino on to third base. The Phils then made it an 11-3 lead in the eighth as, with two men on, and with two men out, Pence hits a two-run single, his second hit of the game, knocking in Rollins, who had earlier walked, then went to third on Utley’s double, and Utley, who had just doubled, his second double of the ballgame, and his third hit. The Phils in the ninth then gave the ball to Michael Stutes, his first post-season appearance, after Halladay had put down twenty-one straight Cards, after giving up a lead-off single in the second to Skip Schumaker, starting with a fantastic play by Howard on a grounder hit to him by Jon Jay for a 1-3 put out, to close out the game. But it wasn’t to be as, four batters latter, with runners on the corners, thanks to a walk to Allen Craig, a single by Pujols, as he moved Craig up to second base, before he is then replaced by pinch runner Gerald Laird, and then a force out on a grounder hit by Berkman, 4-6, as Laird is wiped out at second base, as Craig reached third, and with two men out, the Cards made it an 11-4 Phils’ lead as pinch hitter Adron Chambers hits an RBI single, knocking in Craig, while sending Berkman up to second base. After the Cards had loaded up the bases on a single by Yadier Molina, moving up a base both Berkman and Chambers, and still with one man out, Phils manager Charlie Manuel decided to replace Stutes with his closer Ryan Madson. Schumaker greets Madson with a two-run double, on a ball that glances off of John Mayberry, Jr’s glove in left, then went all the way to the fence, knocking in both Berkman and Chambers, cutting the Phils’ lead down to 11-6, while sending Molina on to third. But that would be it as Madson buckled down and proceeded to strike out, swinging, both Jay and pinch hitter Matt Holliday, for the final outs.

Roy Halladay (1-0, 3.38) gets the win as he pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on three hits and a walk, while striking out eight. Michael Stutes pitched a third of an inning, giving up three runs on three hits and a walk. Ryan Madson pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up a hit, while striking out two. Kyle Lohse (0-1, 8.44) took the lost as he went five and one-third innings, giving up six runs, five of which were earned, on seven hits and a walk, while striking out four. Octavio Dotel pitched two-thirds of an inning, striking out both men that he would face. Marc Rzepczynski pitched to three batters, getting out none, as he gave up three runs on three hits. Mitchell Boggs pitched an inning and two-thirds, giving up two runs on four hits and a walk, while striking out a batter. Arthur Rhodes pitched a third of an inning, getting out the only man that he would face.

The Phils’ offense, after a slow start, pounded out fourteen hits, with Shane Victorino (Singles, 2 RBIs) and Chase Utley (Single, 2 Doubles) both leading the team with three hits each. Jimmy Rollins (Singles), Hunter Pence (Singles, 2 RBIs), and Raul Ibanez (Home Run, Single, 3 RBIs) all followed with two hits apiece. Ryan Howard (Home Run, 4 RBIs) and Roy Halladay (Single), had the other two Phils’ hits, as Howard had his first post-season RBIs since 2009.

The Phils (1-0) will continue their divisional series with the Cards (0-1) with a night game tonight. The game will be played at Citizens Bank Park and is to begin at 8:37 pm EDT. The Phils will send to the mound Cliff Lee (17-8, 2.40), who will be out to lead the Phils to a sweep at home. The Cards will counter with Chris Carpenter (11-9, 3.45), who will be pitching on three days rest, trying to send the Cards back to St. Louis with a split. The Phils will be going out to put themselves in the driver seat, planning to beat up on Carpenter, when the series heads for St. Louis.

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